Getty Eagles DE Brandon Graham secured the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl with his strip sack on Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII.
The roughing-the-passer penalties are getting out of control in the NFL. Pass rushers are getting flagged simply for bringing the quarterback to the ground, even when there is no risk of injury. Something needs to be done.
Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham has seen a lot in his decorated 13-year career. He has 62 career sacks, which ranks No. 4 on the franchise’s all-time list. None bigger than his strip-sack on Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII. Graham is supremely qualified to offer an opinion on the league’s first officiating feeding frenzy. The roughing-the-passer rule needs to be updated.
“Hey man, it ain’t going to change my mindset but it is something that gotta be done,” Graham told reporters. “Because we work too hard for them sacks as it is and it’s already hard enough to get ’em. I feel like, I don’t know if I should say this [laughing] … I’m gonna say it: they, the quarterbacks, get a lot [of money] and so whatever they break they can get it fixed by whatever the money is, you know what I’m saying? Because they getting paid a whole lot.”
Brandon Graham hit on Wentz.
Graham Dishes on Tom Brady’s Hip Shimmy
Two very questionable calls from Week 5 have spawned the raging debate about the roughing-the-passer rules. Grady Jarrett’s hit on Tom Brady was arguably the more egregious of the two since it helped decide the outcome of the Falcons-Buccaneers game. It looked like a textbook sack, yet Jarrett was flagged 15 yards and forfeited a fourth down.
“Just looking back on it, I’m still kind of left clueless,” Jarrett said, via ESPN. “On what I’m expected to do in that situation.”
I swear NFL refs have no clue! Respect to Tom Brady – this has nothing to do with him…
But you absolutely CANNOT make this call! Grady Jarrett makes a sensational play – he’s 300 lbs and ALL his momentum is going to the ground. Inexplicable‼️
Graham saw Jarrett’s sack on television and feels for him. He has been there, down in the trenches chasing after Brady, and knows that the GOAT has a way of flicking his hips that makes it hard to drag him down.
“I didn’t think nobody was trying to hurt nobody, especially with the twist,” Graham said. “Brady do a good job of just kind of like flicking his hips a little bit and he knows how to shimmy people off, sometimes you do kind of have to kind of swing him around because he’s bigger than what you think.”
Trusting Jalen Hurts to Avoid Big Hits When Running
Jalen Hurts has taken a ton of big hits at the end of scrambles while absorbing 11 sacks. The dual-threat quarterback has gotten better about sliding in recent weeks, but he’s always going to be at risk of injury when he darts out of the pocket. It’s part of what makes him so dangerous.
Sometimes, Hurts avoids the hit altogether with his shifty juke moves. Head coach Nick Sirianni trusts his quarterback to make the right decision in the moment.
“He sticks his left foot in the ground and then makes a cut, and now that guy that you thought, oh, he was about to get hit, with how shifty Jalen is, he’s about to get hit, he doesn’t take that hit,” Sirianni said. “So, we trust Jalen. We don’t want to put him in danger. There is a difference between running him recklessly and really going through every play of when he is a running threat and say, ‘Are we putting him in harm’s way?’, which is what we do in each and every case.”
#Eagles coach Nick Sirianni on Jalen Hurts responding to the blitz: “Everything we do is try to have an answer to take a hit off him…It’s always going to be a little different. There’s gotta be variety to it. We’re very conscious of that.
“He’s handling it very well.”
